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Caew-i-Cheldolath
Berg Cradle was the largest of the three principal bays that punctuated the Cape of Forochel. Sheltered between the Minheldolath and Rast Losnaeth promontories, the bay was haven to innumerable icebergs, some of them delved by the Merimetsästäjät. The Berg Cradle was further sub-divided into three smaller bays. The westward arm of Berg Cradle was named Talven Satama, the Winter Harbor. In that season, the northward current of Belegaer drove into the Bay of Forochel, forcing the ice into this wide channel; in summer, the current was less strong, sweeping across the mouth of the bay and drawing the icebergs out of the lesser inlets to open water. The crumbling foothills of the Ered Rhívamar descended in ever lowering heights to the northern shores of the bay. The western shores were little more than boulder-strewn cliffs that eventually merged with the even lower hills of the Minheldolath. The great central arm of Berg Cradle Bay was a deep, narrow channel called Pitkävesi, the Longwater, which reached northward almost to Evermist. Pitkävesi was home to some of the oldest berg-delvings of the Merimetsästäjät. Once a berg was forced into the narrow channel, it often became grounded in one of the shallower inlets along the eastern shores of the Pitkävesi. There the berg remained until an unusually high tide lifted it to resume its endless journey. The summer current of Belegaer was too weak to draw these bergs out of the narrow-mouthed channel, so it was primarily the early gales of autumn, before the bay froze over, that forced them out of the Pitkävesi and into the main gulf of the Berg Cradle. The shores of the Longwater were less rocky and more wooded than those of the rest of the bay. Stands and forests of hardy spruce or pine covered the great strip of land dividing the Pitkävesi from the Talven Satama. The northern end of the Longwater, nearest to the Elven sanctuary of Evermist, was heavily forested. To the east, this forest gradually gave way to the open Fire Tundra. The shores of the Pitkävesi were less rocky than those of the Talven Satama; but save for the far northern end, they were steep and difficult for those who traveled by boat. The easternmost arm of Berg Cradle Bay was called Hûb Rochdol, Horsehead Bay, by the Elves of Evermist, because of the distinctive shape of its shoreline. The Jäämiehet and Merimetsästäjät, who had little experience with such animals, named it Venemiehen Satama, Boatman's Harbor. The bay offered excellent harborage for whaling vessels where its eastern shore (that portion which would be the horse's nose and mouth) provided a wide, pebbly beach and shallow water where boats were easily launched or landed. While subject to ice-floes and smaller bergs, Venemiehen Satama was too shallow in depth for the great bergs in which the Merimetsästäjät lived. From summer to winter, Berg Cradle Bay was a study in contrasts. The warming of the weather in spring brought seals and walruses teeming to its shores. Great flocks of gulls and terns wheeled and swept above its emerald-green waters, bringing its shores to life with the nesting grounds and rookeries of the migrating birds. Eagles, falcons and hawks all preyed upon these massive, shoreline flocks. By early summer, the bay was full of several types of whales, primarily the great humpback, but smaller species such as Pilot, narwhal and killer whale all came to feed and breed in these northern waters. Summer also brought the snow bears to hunt seal and search for mates. The cooler autumn weather brought a dramatic change to the Berg Cradle. The numbers of birds lessened noticeably, and the once-crowded nesting areas were abandoned, parents and young alike having gone south. Whales, so numerous in the summer months, also began their long voyage southwards to warmer waters off the coasts of Haradwaith, where they calfed and raised their young. The seals, on the other hand, had yet to make their journey; and so long as they stayed, so too did the killer whales. In winter, the bay froze and the ice stretched from the middle of Rast Losnaeth to the midsection of Minheldolath. The frozen berg-delvings of the Merimetsästäjät then became immobile. Save for the stray snow bear or dragon, the ice-sheet was virtually deserted. Among the many Merimetsästäjä delvings that wandered the waters of Berg Cradle Bay, the greatest were Menkylä, Talven Muurit and Pohjomen Tähti. The first two could usually be found in Talven Satama during winter and near the eastern coasts of Minheldolath during summer, with Merikylä maintaining a position somewhat north of Talven Muurit; both were accompanied by three minor bergs. Talven Muurit had a fourth satellite, but during a summer squall it was swept far out into the Bay of Forochel, borne away upon a wild current into unknown Belegaer. Through great effort, most of the people of this delving were saved, but a good deal of food-stores and belongings had been lost. Pohjoinen Tähti, on the other hand, remained an almost permanent fixture in the northern waters of the Pitkävesi. The berg had no satellites and remained one of the oldest, continuously occupied delvings of the Merimetsästäjät. Category:Bay Category:Region Category:Forochel Category:MERP